Cook groups—feeding a crowd on a truck in Africa

Set up for cooking. Notice the tarpaulin rolled up along the length of the truck

Overland truck trips are all about teamwork (even dysfunctional teamwork) and one of the first things our driver did was get us to form cook groups. Hey we had to eat, and the trip fare included two meals a day when on the road and camping.

Our 43-week African trip started with 28 people, including the driver and his sidekick. Obviously, those last two weren’t going to cook after a day on the road, so we organised ourselves into six groups of four leaving two others to unload tents and start the cooking fires each day. Six groups meant cooking once every six days. The ‘tent bitches’ were on every day.

Chris and Gary, our driver and his sidekick, urged everyone to have at least one decent cook in every group. Duh, that made sense.

We paired up with Martin and Gwynne, a great couple from the USA, who visited us recently in Australia (click through and scroll down for a pic of them). I was the designated ‘decent’ cook and it helped that for many years I have preferred to cook from scratch. My cooking blog is evidence of that.

Poor John carrying a tub of water

How most cook days played out
On any given day, the relevant cook group usually shopped for food at lunchtime or just before stopping to camp.

In West Africa, our daily budget (for two meals) was $1.80 per person—or just over $50 for the entire group. Don’t forget that we started out with loads of basic dry goods (read about those here). And seriously, $50 goes a long way in those parts.

When we stopped to camp, the tent bitches would get the tents, tables and chairs out, and get the fire going.

Rob and Martin stow tents

The giant kettle went on first because everyone was hanging out for a hot drink. That might sound odd in Africa, but our trip started in March, which is still winter in Morocco. Later on, even on the hottest days, a sugary tea was a great way to rehydrate.

Then the big jobs began. Virtually all the food purchased in markets had to be washed first. We also had to fill and set out bowls that would be used to wash and disinfect hands (nail brushes included), and more bowls that would be used to wash and disinfect dirty dishes, cutlery, and pots and pans.

Sometimes running water was a hike from where we were cooking, but we took advantage of taps whenever they were available because the truck carried only 400 litres of fresh water.

Notice how pale the eggs are

Chopping vegetables

It took time for all of us to figure out just how much food to buy for 28 people and to gauge just how long it might take to chop and cook everything. Having a group of four helped a lot. I had a slight advantage because we lived in Burma for several years in the 1980s and we often entertained large groups.

After dinner, the cook group washed the pots and pans, and packed them away. Diners did their own dishes. After everything was cleaned up it was quite common for people to sit around the fire chatting.

The same cook group organised breakfast the next morning. Leftovers were served too, if there were any and if they could be safely kept overnight. We had no refrigeration—only a large esky (ice chest).

Oh, and if you’re wondering how I managed to cook with dried chickpeas all the time. On our cook days, I’d start them soaking in the morning. I found a way to wedge two water jugs upright in the food storage area.

By the way, we cooked in all sorts of places—at a simple homestay in Morocco, a palatial home in Rwanda, on the shores of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, in the desert, on a construction site, in a mining camp and more. I’ll write more about some of those later.

Some other cook group memoriesBefore the trip began I asked the driver (in a private Facebook message) if there would be decent knives on the truck. My thinking was to bring a couple of my own if necessary. He replied publicly saying something like Yes, Peggy, there will be plenty of good knives on the truck. No wonder I was regarded with some suspicion at first.

Our first shop in Tetouan, Morocco

Fresh food in Tetouan

Chicken shop

I’ll always remember our first shop in Morocco. Tetouan has a large market with an abundance of fresh food. I found I was able to use smatterings of Arabic and French to buy wonderful ingredients at way less than a tourist price. Thank goodness for Attiya in Cairo who taught me all the foods in Arabic.

The biggest headache for most groups was catering for the fussy eaters. I didn’t at all mind cooking for vegetarians. That was easy. But in addition to a couple of vegetarians, we had seven who didn’t like fish, another seven who wouldn’t eat mushrooms, one who didn’t eat chicken, and one who complained about onions and garlic. Geez! More about that later. Oh, and for some outlandish reason, everyone ate tinned tuna!

For the first couple of months, our cook night seemed to come around when it was raining—sometimes pouring. We had a tarpaulin that could be stretched out over the cook tables, but they didn’t do much in torrential rain. In Togo we stood in ankle-deep water to cook.

John, Lena and Tamara help on pizza night

One big win came after a very long day. Our group bought 28 baguettes and 56 eggs at lunchtime with a plan to make egg salad sandwiches for dinner. There was a truck excursion to a waterfall and we were quite late getting back to camp. Gwynne and I dreaded the prospect of then having to boil eggs. But as it happened, one of us dropped an egg and we discovered that all 56 eggs were already hard-boiled. Whew!

As passengers left, cook groups reshaped and went from four to three. Martin and Gwynne started a new group, and one gal asked to join us. Much to my amusement, she sacked us a couple of months later because we cooked with too much garlic and way too many onions.

By the time we got to Ethiopia, we were cooking in pairs. After a few mornings in a row, when the fellow who was supposed to start the fire slept in way too late, Poor John and I resigned from official cooking. Given that we got up early anyway, we offered instead to get the fire going every morning and also get breakfast laid out for everyone. The normal cook group would do the after-breakfast clean and pack. That offer was accepted and we did that routine through Ethiopia and The Sudan.

Flying ant wings everywhere

The best and the worst
We didn’t cook on the worst night, but we all suffered and it wasn’t the food. We’d had a fabulous day seeing hippos up close in Cameroon. That night we unwittingly camped at the scene of the annual mating ritual of flying ants. Egads, there were ants everywhere. The males die after mating and the females shed their wings. What a mess to clean up.

But the best night also came in Cameroon. It was Poor John’s birthday. It was a bush camp, and Gwynne and Martin’s cook group decided to make pizzas—not the easiest thing to do on a campfire.

Lots of people pitched in to help and the food was sensational. To top it off, we did a variety show with everyone contributing an act. I can’t remember them all, but there were dances, a puppet show, comedy acts and more. Poor John recited the Australian bush poem Bluey Brink and I recited these Sudanese poems.

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81 Comments

the first time I went on a backpackers tour with cooking involved I was scared senseless – I was a young girl who was spoilt by a brilliant cook of a mother! But I followed the others and eventually enjoyed it. I learnt alot from that trip!

A long time ago, when I was new to cooking, I would have been terrified by the prospect of cooking for 10 people. By the time I was on this trip, I had many years of cooking, including years in the Third World where no processed food was available.

On this trip, we couldn’t really decide what to cook. We had to see what was available in the market and sort of go from there. Luckily we could almost always buy tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic and eggs.

Anything orange coloured looks amazing in market baskets. I come from a family of home taught cooks who are all capable and willing to cook for a crowd, and we all love being roped into a kitchen. But aren’t people just getting finicky with food. I have a friend who owns a catering coy in Tassie. Recently they catered a wedding at which 3/4 of the guests had some form of food intolerance.

I bet it wasn’t food intolerance, but fussiness for the most part. When my kids were growing up I allowed them to have one food they didn’t have to eat. Libby nominated brussels sprouts and I still made her try just one whenever I served them (she likes them now depending on the preparation). Petra didn’t nominate anything because she knew I’d just hound her to eat it anyway.

Pretty much the same with all of our 28 exchange students. I taught them to cook and my only broad allowance was for vegetarians. I totally respect that life choice. I respect vegans too, but don’t think I could manage to cook consistently for a vegan—a couple of meals okay, a couple of years no.

I find it quite extraordinary that on such a trip people had any notion of being fussy about what they ate …. as for tea – people do find it odd that one would drink tea in the heat but I always point to India from where the English love of tea stems, of course. It is the most refreshing of drinks in the heat as well as being the most warming in the cold. All hail TEA! ☕️

I’m not a big tea drinker and never with sugar, but I drank lots of chai in India and plenty of sugary tea in Africa. As for the fussy eaters, I give a lot of credit to the gal who didn’t like too much garlic and onion. She was a vegetarian before she came on the trip, and decided that was a stretch.

I’m British … we can’t really imagine life without Tea and we think of it as the greatest remedy for shock and grief. I have revised what I said about the girlie with the aversion to quantities of onion and garlic … chapeau to her for stepping of the veggie wagon – that is impressive 🙂

It’s a lot like a school trip but I get to tell everyone what to do and the kids all help and the other teachers are so pathetic they cant even change a car tyre. And most of the teachers never do anything to help.

I cannot imagine why fussy eaters would ever go on such a trip. Given the conditions, I think you all did a fantastic job. But the more I read, the happier I am not to have been there. I am not made of such stern stuff, obviously. Full marks to you and John.
These days, they would make a ‘Reality TV’ show about such an adventure, eliminating people by public vote.
Best wishes, Pete.

When Poor John and I did similar trips in the 1970s, fussy eating was not an option. And I agree about the option for a reality TV program. Although I’d prefer that the option to vote someone off the truck was decided by the passengers and not the viewing audience!

Plenty of interesting meals, but only one really bad one. That was such a disappointment for that cook group. They’d made an amazing meal but at the end added one ingredient that threw everything off. I think it was something to feed to animals—palatable to them but not humans. We all felt so sorry for the cooks. and they were so apologetic.

When our group shopped I made a point of asking whether something was edible and whether it was to be cooked or eaten raw. You don’t really have to have the language to figure that out. Hand signals can work fine.

I like cooking from scratch and can cook for large groups, but nothing fancy though. I would find annoying to cook for fussy eaters particularly in a trip like this when you are tired and hungry at the end of the day. I am enjoying your tales…such a great adventure 😄

Great post Peggy! It brought back so many memories of my own trek through Africa. Of baking birthday cakes in an over-the-fire oven I devised with two pots, of making spaghetti bolognese with canned meat, of shopping in the markets, of the people who really helped and the ones who were difficult. It sounds as if you had an amazing time and weathered well all the “personalities”.
I too remember hippos in Cameroon!
Alison

Makes me very glad my 7 years in Africa were spent in various company houses (9 of them) with staff to cook and clean for me. I did do a lot of market shopping and bargaining though. That was rough enough for me, especially with a child born in Ibadan to cope with.

The basics of much food has to be garlic, onions and tomatoes. I eat anything but struggle with vegemite, but even that item I could eat if driven to starvation.
It must have been great fun doing all those chores.
Year ago, the Adult Education had a bush-walking course between Sydney and Newcastle. One of the party wore totally unsuitable shoes and wanted to be taken back half-way after the first day of bush walking.
We were all astonished. Bush walking in fashion shoes? We ended that day dropping her off at a bus stop.

I can understand wearing fashion shoes to, say, a wedding, but a bush walk? What do people think? How do people think? I agree, onions, garlic and tomatoes are a perfect start to almost any dish. Oh, and I love Vegemite.

There is no such thing as too much garlic, or onions for that matter. I was once on a tour around Tassie where our cook broke her ankle and had to leave the tour so the cooking duties were taken over by the passengers. The girls decided that they would do all of the cooking until one night when I got all of they guys together and we kicked them out. We had to do the shopping as well so I kept it simple and decided on lasagne for dinner. One problem there was not enough tomato paste or tinned tomatoes

Or fresh tomatoes either in the local store, ended up using Heinz Big Red tomatoe soup. The driver was actually a chef and told me that there was no such thing as too much garlic, which I now live by, after he heard one of the girls complain after dinner. We guys did pretty well making everything from close to scratch and only one complaint and lots of surprised dinners who were expecting to starve.

One of the benefits of sharing a house with a Navy Submarine Chef you learn how to cook with the basic ingredients and tools.

Oh wow, you can come on one of our trips any time. That’s a great way you learned to cook and one that will always hold you in good stead. And yes, there is no such thing as too much garlic. I make a cauliflower dish that calls for 16 cloves of garlic and I usually add more.

How inventive to cook pizzas over an open fire. Looks like a lot of fun, except for the people with intolerances and since I am now one of those type, I’d probably be a nightmare to cook for, but then maybe I’m getting old 🙂

I think there’s a time and place for fussiness, Peggy. When shopping I like the best fresh food (and free of blemishes if possible). My family think I’m fussy for instance, but I keep telling them to just cook fresh food or make fresh salads. I don’t do well on grains,dairy & legumes, but that doesn’t mean I don’t eat them every now & then.

It’s amazing what you can do with some lemons, olive oil, salt & pepper or some local herbs or spices. I can’t eat hot chillies any more, but love good Indian curries or middle eastern food.

I was very, very ill when a friend made soup with cream, quiche (cheese & cream) and cheesecake for dessert once though. I threw up for hours when I got home later that night 🙂

I completely agree that it’s okay to be fussy over the quality of ingredients. Pity the dinner overloaded with dairy caused you so much agony. Oh, and I’m in food heaven. A friend just gave me a bag of lemons. Yay!

Having organized group outings for years, Peggy, I am ever so familiar with cook groups. Bike and river trips used communal efforts similar to yours, but in backpacking I always used four person groups to cook for themselves so carrying gas and cooking equipment could be shared. Enjoyed your story and photos! Good job. The flying ant story reminds me of the flying termites in Liberia… except everybody was out scrambling to gather the termites up for food. My students came to class with cans filled with still-squirming termites (Bug-a-bug) and popped them into their mouths while I was teaching. “Sweet, Mr. Mekemson. You really should try some.” –Curt

I can cook and have cooked for big groups, but this still seems intimidating! The picky eaters would have gotten to me eventually, I think. I’m also not good with new, strange ingredients. Sounds like a great way to build camaraderie, though! (Or maybe wreck it on occasion …?!)

Other than leaning towards vegetarian and not cooking with fish or mushrooms (or leaving them out of half the recipe), we seemed to manage rather well. That said I would rather have just cooked whatever we could find. At least we had to cook only once every six days.

You captured the evidence that there was a lot of mating going on . . . and it’s a good thing it was just the ants . . .
Nice to experience your trip from the comforts of my home with running water – although it would be nice to have someone cook for me!

Everyone liked canned tuna? That would be my default menu if I had to cook! What a job it must have been to cook for 28 people with about 38 of them being fussy eaters. And if anyone complained, I’d do what I used to do with my sons – pull out the boxes of cereal. It made them happy and me too. Seriously, you did some amazing things with food. Fun article.

I should think the cooking arrangements were a great learning experience for one and all. As for fussy eaters, I could never take my husband on a trip like this. I couldn’t begin to list his many dislikes, but I could probably count the foods he does like on on one hand – no, I’ll be generous here – probably both hands. But that’s allowing for different combinations of foods he likes. I’ve really enjoyed your posts about this road trip, Peggy! What an amazing trip it was.